The knee is the largest joint in the body and has the most stress put on it. Due to this increased stress, knee injuries are one of the most common injuries that active people get.

They lead to a lot of pain and prevent you from doing the things you love to do.

One of the most common injuries to the knee is an anterior cruciate ligament tear. Just after an anterior cruciate ligament tear the focus might be to see if you can go on living your life with your anterior cruciate ligament torn. For some this may be fine. For others who have too much pain, a decrease in range of motion and lots of swelling an anterior cruciate ligament tear may lead to surgery.

After surgery often times it is encouraged to stay active in order to use the knee.

If you do start becoming active after anterior cruciate ligament surgery, there is a lot to consider.

One thing is how will your new anterior cruciate ligament graft do when walking down hill.

Will walking down hill lead to injuring your anterior cruciate ligament again?

Disturbed proprioception occurring after an ACL injury and reconstruction can cause impairment or weakness of muscles stabilizing the involved knee joint. Because downhill walking can place a lot of stress on the involved knee joint, with as much as 7 to 8.5 times the body weight, it must therefore be avoided during the postoperative period to protect the ACL reconstruction. With knee shear forces exceeding the strength of ACL graft fixations, stabilization training of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles, the main stabilizing muscles of the knee, is essential. The rehabilitation process usually employs full range of motion exercises first, followed by muscle strengthening, then balance and coordination exercises.